my thoughts on
the world written at the eve of the new millennium (1/1/00) - seems still
relevant today

Farithal Sahari
2000

010100

by
Ijal @ http://uia2k.tripod.com

Please
handle, pet, fondle, caress, open, read, and wonder

“Universities have to grow to be centers for the
cultivation of the creative and adventurous minds. While pursuing specific
interests, our minds must never be …. ‘barbarized’ by specialization. We
must remain alive to ideas from other disciplines and the general philosophis
temper of the time”

(Anwar
Ibrahim)

1.

aaaaa….buuuuu..buu.baaaa….buk…mmmmm………nomeaningwhatsoever…..

Gosh! 26
years alive! I feel terribly excited – really fortunate to still be able to
see the sun and the blue sky. Throughout this existence, I’ve read such a many
books, watched such a many movies, drank such a many colas, slept such a many
hours, and followed such a many events…

2.

Knowledge is
power! Yet, knowledge does not come cheap. States spend billions for education;
teachers put tiredless efforts to educate. And, students become debtors in order
to be educated. Do not mistake information as knowledge. It does not reside in
the books you are reading, nor in the Pcs you are using. It is embodied in you;
it is taught and learned by you, used and misused by you.

3.

Crystal
sure, knowledge is power. Presently, two kinds of knowledge viewed as supremely
essential are TECHNOLOGY KNOW-WHO and TECHNOLOGY KNOW-HOW. The former is to
ensure you can land on a job and the latter to ensure, once you have gotten the
job, you will not be kicked out of the job for being too dumb.

4.

Every person
has his own dreams: to have a good job, a good mate, a good house, a good life.
Unfortunately, all that demands hard work plus smart head. Thus, it is wise to
begin each day renewed with optimism:

Fiet sedulo:I’ll do my best

Palmas non
sine pulueri:No sweet without sweat

Dum spiro
spero:While there is life, there is hope

Though, at
the end one may find that those days were their

Dies atri:Unlucky day

Be
persistant, as

I forgot
already: Life has its ups and downs

5.

Moving away
from individual’s life, I see that we live in a ‘permissive society’ that
strangely has minority they call ‘fundamentalists’. In this society’s
eyes, fundamentalists preach that only their path is the sure way to salvation.
In fundamentalists’ world, there are no uncertainties. Those not following
their prescription deserve to be punished. Logically, the ‘non
fundamentalist’ society advocates the opposite position, liberalism. Due to
this, hedonistic culture is allowable, interest-based economics is natural, and
genocide is tolerable.

6.

An
illustration of the ‘openness’ of the society is seen in case of
‘erotica’ versus ‘pornography’. The latter is viewed as bad whereas the
former labeled as ‘good’. One is the use of the freedom of expression while
another its abuse. One is defined as art whereas another as crime. The fact is
both are the different ways of looking at a similar thing. Hence, in a
permissive society ‘nudity’ can be legal as well as illegal.

7.

This
society, its religion is materialism and its god is money. It is a materialistic
society because in its citizens’ view:

Cloth is
more valuable than the man who wears it

Food is more
valuable than the man who eats it

House is
more valuable than the man who dwells in it

Work is more
valuable than the man who does it.

For them the
(divine) God is dead! In the vacuum, money is the supreme deity, affirming what
Karl Marx once said, “this alien essence (money) dominates him (man) and he
worships it”.

Isn’t it
beautiful that the world society today is professing one, similar religion?

“When it
is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion” – Voltaire

8.

Capitalism
and democracy are the bulwarks of this ‘religion’. The collapse of communism
has made capitalism and democracy triumph, and stronger than ever. They face no
challenge whatsoever; hence post-communism era is called the ‘end of
history’. Now, capitalism and democracy are the kings. They believe that they
are the one who can chart the world, control and destroy. They are the Ya’juj
and Ma’juj. They are preparing the road of Dajjal’s ascension.

“Only
America can lead the world. America remains the only global, universal
civilization in the history of mankind…without a vibrant American
civilization, barbarism, violence, and dictatorship will increase across the
planet”.